GREY PHALAROPE. 99 



their southern winter quarters. They are also, for the 

 most part, young birds of the year, in various stages ^f 

 change towards the pure and delicate grey colour of the 

 plumage of winter. Some years since, A. B. Lambert, 

 Esq. presented to the Zoological Society a beautifully- 

 marked adult bird; this was killed in "Wiltshire in the 

 month of August, and retained at that time a great por- 

 tion of the true red colours of the breeding-season, or 

 summer plumage ; and I have occasionally seen specimens 

 obtained in December and January, and then exhibiting, 

 of course, the perfect grey plumage of winter. 



They feed on the smaller thin-skinned Crustacea and 

 aquatic insects, which they search for and pick up from the 

 surface of the water while swimming ; and their attitude 

 resembles that of the Teal, with the head drawn back- 

 wards. A specimen in my own collection, killed in No- 

 vember, 1824, while swimming on the Thames near Bat- 

 tersea, was seen there by a gardener, who went home, a 

 distance of a mile and a half, to fetch his gun, and on his 

 return found the bird still swimming and feeding near the 

 same spot. 



This species breeds in Iceland, Greenland, on the North 

 Georgian and Melville Islands. The eggs are usually four 

 in number, of a stone colour tinged with olive ; spotted 

 and speckled over with dark brown ; measuring one inch 

 two lines in length, by ten lines and a half in breadth. 

 The egg here described, which is in my own collection, and 

 is figured in Mr. Hewitson's work, was brought from Mel- 

 ville Island, and also the female bird in summer plumage, 

 from which the figure in the back-ground of the illustra- 

 tion was drawn and engraved. 



This species has now been obtained in so many different 

 counties in England, as to render the particular enumera- 

 tion of them unnecessary ; in some instances they were 



H 2 



